Kurds react as the bodies of three killed Kurdish women are removed from a Paris building Thursday.(Photo: Remy de la Mauviniere)
PARIS -- Three Kurdish women, including one of the founders of a
militant group battling Turkish troops since 1984, were "executed" at a
Kurdish center in Paris, the interior minister said Thursday. The news
prompted angry crowds of Kurds to flood into the area.
It was not
immediately clear who killed the women, who belonged to the Kurdistan
Workers Party, or PKK, a group that Turkey and its Western allies,
including the United States and the European Union, consider a terrorist
organization.
The slayings came as Turkey was holding peace talks
with the group to try to persuade it to disarm. A Turkish lawmaker
claimed the women were slain in a dispute between PKK factions, while
some Kurdish protesters and a Kurdish lawmaker in Turkey claimed the
Turkish government was involved.
Turkey's Anadolu news agency identified one of the victims as Sakine Cansiz, a founding member of the PKK.
The
conflict between the PKK and Turkish troops has claimed tens of
thousands of lives since 1984, when the rebels - who are seeking
self-rule for Kurds in southeast Turkey - took up arms.
French
Interior Minister Manuel Valls, who visited the pro-Kurdish center in
Paris where the bodies were found, said the deaths were "without doubt
an execution." He called it a "totally intolerable act."
RTL radio reported that all three women were shot in the head, but French police would not immediately confirm the report.
Associated Press